NEWSLETTER

After someone’s death, what happens when no one can find a will? Their estate usually passes according to the law of “intestate succession.” That means the state’s legislature has effectively written a will for the decedent. What, if anything, can be done about a missing will? Of course, a missing will might indicate that the…

Alan and Glenda were engaged. Tragically, Alan was in a 2010 automobile accident. He suffered a head injury, and his daughter filed a petition for appointment of a guardian. Soon, a guardian “of the property” was appointed. More than a year later, Alan and Glenda went ahead and got married. Was their attempted marriage valid?…

We often write about cases of lawyer discipline. That’s not because we enjoy relating the stories, but because they often provide guidance even to non-lawyers. For one example, many of the lawyer discipline cases involve breaches of fiduciary duty. The duties owed to an estate are the same whether the executor is a lawyer or…

Probate avoidance is often a key goal for our estate planning clients. Sometimes that is best addressed by establishing a living trust. In other cases it might be just as efficient to focus on beneficiary designations. In fact, even when a living trust is involved, beneficiary designations help meet the purposes of the trust. At…

In our last newsletter, we discussed the importance of following up your estate planning. Beneficiary designations are an important part of that process, we emphasized. Your IRA beneficiary designation can be particularly challenging to get right. You may have already noticed, too, that things change. A recent federal appellate decision (involving an Arizona state law)…

After you have signed your estate planning documents, you still have more work to do. Where will you keep original documents? Who will get copies? But here’s a topic that too often gets overlooked: the beneficiary designation. What is at issue Perhaps your will or trust directs that a particular bank account is to be…

We’ve written before about why you might want to avoid guardianship proceedings. They are expensive. More lawyers, judges and court-appointed officials are involved than most people would like to have in their lives. If you planned in advance, you probably would not choose a cumbersome, invasive and public legal proceeding. How can you avoid guardianship?…

When a court decides that a lawyer should return fees improperly collected, the usual term comes with powerful imagery. The lawyer is usually ordered to “disgorge” those fees. Courts are very protective about the fees charged in probate, guardianship and trust administration matters. Lawyers often find themselves having to justify their fees. An order to…

When our clients sign living trusts, they usually are thinking about how to simplify legal proceedings. Trusts normally are not subject to court supervision, which helps save court costs and fees. Without court oversight, though, the trustee of a trust can sometimes get crosswise with the beneficiaries. When things reach too difficult of an impasse,…

Arizona law allows you to sign a “holographic” will (or a holographic codicil). That means you can handwrite your own will and sign it. Such a will or codicil does not need the two witnesses usually required. So that means you can easily write — or change — your will yourself. Right? Please do not…